Songs for Judy (2018)

When Neil grew tired of the Stills-Young Band tour in mid-1976, it came with the realization that he had made a mistake leaving Crazy Horse behind earlier that year. So to make good on cancelled dates from the failed tour, he reconvened the Horse. Along for the ride were photographer/archivist/guitar tuner Joel Bernstein and Cameron Crowe, the rock journalist who would become a film writer and director. Bernstein took to making his own tapes of these shows and as is related in this fantastic interview, he and Crowe decided to compile their favorite performances from the solo acoustic portion of the shows. This became known as the Bernstein Tape, an infamous bootleg. Fast forward many years and Neil decides to officially release a reconstituted version of this collection. He reorganized it into a chronological sequence and substituted his own multitrack recordings for the latter dates.

So Songs for Judy has quite a history behind it. While there are a lot of fantastic versions of songs on here, the best aspect of it is how it intimate it feels. Neil always chats with the audiences between songs (affectionally called “raps” by most fans) and is usually very funny. The difference on this one versus other ones (like Massey Hall) is the slightly punch drunk feel it has. Many of these were late shows (during this era Neil sometimes did two shows a night) and you get the sense of being at a musician’s house as they wind down the evening. Except, after the acoustic portion of these shows, Crazy Horse would come out and blow the roof off (as heard on the Odeon Budokan volume of Archives Vol. 2).

As this album has 23 tracks and many of these songs have been talked about already, let’s talk about some highlights. The “Songs for Judy Intro” track is basically all the sides of Neil in one three minute rap (of note, this track is from the end of the tour, so it’s the only song out of chronological sequence). As he attempts to start “Too Far Gone,” an at-the-time unreleased song, he’s stopped by audience members shouting out song requests.

Oh I know all those old songs, really, I still know the changes. And sometimes I feel like a green Wurlitzer. I love it when ya, you know, when you ask me for those old songs and everything but, it's funny 'cause what keeps you alive is what kills you you know…” (“Songs for Judy Intro”)

He was expressing the Rust Never Sleeps theme a couple years before it crystallized while talking to Devo and seeing that phrase on some of their old work. He feels like he has to keep changing lest the rust sets in. If he just trotted out the hits every show, it would be stale. And this audience request tension still happens. In fact, just a few days ago as of writing this, during his Coastal Tour, he had a less charitable reaction to a request. “Loud boisterous mothers” indeed. The one thing any fan of Neil should count on is that he will zig when you expect him to zag. Typically that means playing new songs when people expect the hits. Songs for Judy contains both, of course, which makes it a pretty remarkable collection. The hilarious bit about seeing Judy Garland in the audience is what gives the collection it’s title. Another perfect Neil quip: “I know you can relate to this song, it's a song I wrote about myself.”

Songs for Judy shifts back to the beginning of the tour as Neil gets going on “Too Far Gone.” He does an uncharacteristic thing, though, ad libbing some narration to the song. It’s incredibly funny to hear, along with the audiences reaction. Did he do that to make it more entertaining for them to hear a new song? He has a pulse on crowds, that’s for sure. This song about having fun with a lady friend while drinking and doing drugs is heartfelt and sad despite the light hearted delivery in this performance. His comments about there being too much noise seems to be a comment on the audience that night, too. It’s a great song. I used to really love the version on Freedom, but honestly the production on it feels too much now that I’ve heard sparser versions.

I absolutely love the way Neil transitions from “Heart of Gold” into “White Line.” It’s so smooth, it just sounds like a purposeful timing change. This is such a great song, it’s no wonder he kept trying it out with different bands and instrumentation before finally committing to the Crazy Horse version on Ragged Glory. Still love “Love is a Rose” and cannot decide which is better, this version or “Dance Dance Dance.” They are both a fun time. This is one of the more emotional sounding performances of it that I’ve heard. He’s talking about CSNY in the intro to “Human Highway,” a song he’s tried to record several times but never made it to an album until Comes a Time. This banjo version is great, a real down home feel. I love when Neil plays the banjo. Always happy to hear “Tell Me Why.”

Neil dedicating Tonight’s the Night’s “Mellow My Mind” on banjo “especially for you critics” shows a bit of where his head was at at this particular moment. At the time, that album was still somewhat fresh in people’s mind and had not been well received by critics. Taking a song where he purposely cracks his voice and combining it with a banjo was a big middle finger to the journalists. “Give Me Strength” shows up and it’s still wild to think it never appeared on an album until the 2017 archival release of Hitchhiker.

After a dramatic “A Man Needs a Maid” that zaps the collection of it’s freewheeling spirit, “Roll Another Number (For the Road)” brings the party back. Even the piano on “Journey Through The Past” seems a little jauntier than usual for this wistful song. “Campaigner” might be Neil’s most relevant song in 1976 with the sympathy it shows for Richard Nixon. Two years on from his resignation, the song is met with a strangely quiet audience, almost like they don’t know how to react. Of course, this song reveals a lot about how Neil sees himself, too. A unique performance of “The Old Laughing Lady” contains a little extension known as “Guilty Train.” I think this is the performance Jimmy McDonough called the definitive performance of the song. It’s certainly remarkable, with Neil’s train whistle trailing off into the silence of a stunned audience.

“The Losing End” is an interesting acoustic performance given it was also played with the Horse on the same tour. When stripped back, it takes on an interesting folk persona vs the original studio version’s country jam. It’s much sadder and more serious than Everybody Knows This is Nowhere’s good time feel. It’s almost more appropriate given the lyrics. Honestly, it might be too sad in this rendition and probably why Neil softened it for the album.

This performance of “Pocahontas” is from the final show of the tour, so he had been playing it for about a month at this point. It’s quite good and features a fun vamp where he mentions a couple Watergate people, among them John Erlichman, who entered prison just before this tour started. The collection closes with a long “Sugar Mountain” from the same night as the “Songs For Judy Intro” rap, with Neil saying “Come on up here, Judy” before launching into the song. Putting that rap up at the front is a great intro the album and gives us this neat bookend moment to send us off.

Top 3:

1. White Line
2. Too Far Gone
3. The Losing End

Cut song: difficult to say but maybe A Man Needs a Maid feels a bit out of place here.

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